The Bright Side! 8-)
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Love yourself, Love others, Love your Life.
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Vol. 2, Issue # 37                       August 29, 2001
www.BrightSideCoaching.com          ISSN: 1530-4334
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Welcome
Embracing Greatness
Contact Info
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Good Morning! Welcome to all -- it's great to have so many new subscribers. There are almost 3000 Bright Side subscribers now! What a privilege it is to share your time. Thank you!

This issue of The Bright Side is being delivered a day early as I head to the hospital this morning for some scheduled surgery. I will be just fine, but I'd appreciate it if you sent healing energy my way this week as I will have a 3 or 4 day stay in the hospital. I believe in the power of collective energy, and, most certainly in prayers so I thank you very much for thinking of me.

If I could be so bold to ask another favor, please also remember my AMAZING friend, Vicki. She reports to back to M.D. Anderson in Houston to see if her cancer remains in remission. I am believing that it is and I ask you to stand with me on that belief. Thank you so much!

With Love,
Beth
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Embracing Greatness

The other day I was driving in the car with my daughter, Anna. We were on a two lane road traveling south heading home. Apparently, someone in the North bound lane had lost a tire and it was sitting right in the middle of the road.

A man in a truck just ahead of us slowed his car down and then stopped so that he could move the tire out of the way. Anna asked me what he was doing and I told her that he was getting the tire out of the way before someone got hurt.

She thought and said, "He's a GOOD man" as she watched him pick the tire up to move it.

And I said, "Yes, he is."

Just then, the man threw the tire off to the side of the road and proceeded back to get in his pick up truck and drive off.

Anna looked at me and said, "And he could have been a GREAT man if he would have put that tire in the back of his truck."

Hmmm. What is it they say? "Out of the mouths of babes"! :-)

It got me thinking about greatness and wondering if mediocrity is acceptable. Certainly it is, but is that how we want to be remembered? Not me! I want to be thought of as someone GREAT! Yes, let's acknowledge that this man was conscientious and saved people from harming themselves by removing an object from the road. But should it end there? Is it enough? Perhaps not.

What would have made this man GREAT? Here are some things I noticed:

1. He would have been GREAT if he had taken complete responsibility once he got involved and not just partial responsibility.
2. He would have been GREAT if he had finished the job he started.
3. He would have been GREAT if he had delivered more than anyone expected of him.

Aren't these the attributes that make so many folks GREAT and not merely GOOD? Think of great leaders you know from history. What about Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr.? Do these attributes show up when you think of them? I bet they do!

How about in our lives? How do we want to show up in the world? Most of us would like to make a significant contribution, wouldn't we? In aspiring to be GREAT, remember these simple thoughts:

1. Take responsibility.
*The price of greatness is responsibility.
-- Winston Churchill
2. Follow through with what you begin.
* What makes greatness is starting something that lives after you.
-- Ralph W. Sockman
3. Deliver more than is expected of you.
* When the rock is hard, we get harder than the rock. When the job is
tough, we get tougher than the job.
-- George Cullum, Sr.

Viktor Frankl, author of Man's Search for Meaning, writes about his survival during five years imprisoned in Auschwitz and other concentration camps. He says, "Man does not simply exist, but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment."

Why not become GREAT?
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Thanks for sharing your time today. If you reply to this
e-zine, please know that I will respond to you when I am recovering -- I appreciate your patience. Please look for the next issue of The Bright Side on September 12. Until then, I wish you a life filled with GREATNESS!

God Bless,
Beth
Professional Life Coach /Writer / Human Being
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Contact Info
Copyright 2001 Beth Burns
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Beth Burns is a Professional Life Coach -- partnering with motivated people on their personal and professional goals. Her mission is to teach people to love themselves and love their life! She offers two free email newsletters and can be visited on the web at www.BrightSideCoaching.com . She can also be reached by calling 678-938-0419 or by email Beth@BrightSideCoaching.com .